THE city politician responsible for recycling 30 per cent of Birmingham's rubbish has rejected calls for wheelie bins.

THE city politician responsible for recycling 30 per cent of Birmingham's rubbish has rejected calls for wheelie bins.

Coun Len Gregory, who faces heavy Government fines if the target is not met by 2010, maintains the large containers are not the popular choice of families, who prefer to box and bag their household waste.

His assertion contradicts surveys organised in inner city wards like Ladywood and Sparkbrook where residents have over-whelmingly voted in favour of wheelie bins to curb the spread of rodents.

Coun Gregory, who cancelled a multi-millionpound wheelie bin order which would have put much of the city on a fortnightly instead of weekly collection, claimed that households objected to them because they were difficult to store.

"You would have a large number of people up in arms if they had to keep these eyesore bins on their front gardens," he told a council scrutiny committee.

Although they have been used by other big cities, Coun Gregory claimed ed that wheelie bins were not now seen by experts as a solution to the collection and recycling of household waste.

"The demand for them in Birmingham is pretty small," he insisted. "And the costs are high - it is #150,000 for each vehicle capable of collecting them."

Meanwhile, the city is on course to avoid Government fines and hit its 18 per cent recycling target for this year.

The increase has been achieved by a green waste kerbside collection scheme introduced for 40,000 households in the south of the city coupled with a special collection of glass, plastic, and tins.

In 14 weeks since the start of the operation, 1,400 tons of green waste had been collected - double the previous total.